Fred Eerdekens

Fred Eerdekens installation work is based on the concept of projecting a strong beam of light through structures that appear integrally sound in their own right to cast perfectly formed words in shadow on the opposing wall. In the Photoshop era this kind of work suffers from a strange ambivalence of a diminished initial impact followed by a swiftly flourishing sense of wonder. The real charm of his work is in the innocuous nature of the sculpture pieces, no more abstract than anything else we are encouraged to consider as art; and as far as technique goes, the shadow-writing itself has a surreal sharpness and quality of composition and proportion. It is difficult to accept at first that there is no technical deception involved.

As far as the artist himself goes, Fred Eerdekens has not yet made Wikipedia's eponymous List of Belgians - my knowledge of Belgian culture does not extend to assessing the standards by which the others made it on to the list, although the creator of the list states the following as potentially validating characteristics for entry:

• fictional characters who are undisputedly Belgian
• important ones whose citizenship is unknown or not Belgian and with Belgian creators.

Whilst his work has been frequently exhibited he does not appear to have much notoriety in his own right. I suspect that this is because his work is more technically and aesthetically interesting than anything else; not to say that it lacks significance, since some of the pieces have a clear message that draws on the idea of a sculpture containing a hidden message which the beam of light reveals.

To see more photographs and angles you can try his website, although as the images in this post may demonstrate the resolution of the photographs is not all it might be.